DS works on a 15 hour min contract at Coffee shop- how available does he need to be every weekend ?

You are "meant" to be available all the time in part time retail work, I imagine it's the same for coffee shop chains.

Yes, they do expect you to be free to cover sickness and holidays every single day on the basis of a part time contract. My contract was only 10hrs per week at one point on retail, but I was not allowed to not be available every day. You have to keep yourself free incase you get called in.

It's stupid. Thank god I don't work retail anymore.

I had similar at uni requesting time off at Christmas (but working new year) and was told no, you must work Christmas Eve. That would have made it impossible to get home. So I gave them my last shift date, but let them know I would remain open to coming back from X date if wanted. After 2 weeks they caved in and it was suddenly official holiday. The reason I could stare them out was that there were tons of part-time hospitality jobs. It's the same now, loads of jobs and not enough staff. I would advise him to give his notice while politely explaining it's only because he can't work those specific dates. He keeps his reference and it'll give the manager a few weeks to consider what s/he wants to do about it.

This is normal. My DD who is still at school has to arrange shift swaps or shift cover for things like this. It annoying but normal and expected.

And why, if he's a graduate is he only working 15 hours a week? Surely Amazon, Lidl etc are looking for full time staff.
This is the problem today. He's not standing on his own 2 feet at 21/2. He's relying on the helicopter parents to deal with his life for him. Surely if he's got a degree he should have mentioned the fact he can't work then.

Don't be a twit.

Totally normal for hospitality he will be expected to be available within opening hours but will only be guaranteed 15 hours. The manager can refuse annual leave if others are already off or if not enough annual leave had been accrued. Had he have given the dates at interview he would have been given the time off. His options are see what he’s working and attempt to swap shifts/lose shifts, call in sick (could lead to termination) or refuse to work and risk losing his job.

If other staff have already booked this time off, there isn’t much he can do? It’s first in best dressed at my partners work for holidays/time. If people are booking a proper holiday there can be stuff on the calendar 6 months or more in advance. He really should have made sure go got the time off booked in as soon as he started as he obviously knew about it.

I would suggest longer term he starts applying for supermarket jobs. They are generally more reasonable, and have a lot more staff for if shifts need switching.

His contract should include availability windows which he filled out, unfortunately if he's put all day every day he will be expected to be available, and that will likely have made them pick him over candidates who gave smaller availability windows.

Par for the course in 'starter' jobs - I've seen it in hospitality, retail, theatres, cinemas.100% flexibility expect from employee, 0% flexibility from employer. Then make it the employee's problem to sort any days off.

What he needs to do is tell them he will not be available on certain days. He can then expect to be 'punished' by not getting shifts for a while, or lots of split shifts. Maybe he'll get the odd call some mornings asking if he can work that day. On and on, until they realise they are now short staffed and no one else wants the hours, or the manager moves on so no one remembers the grudge.

He can just tell the manager which days he can work and which days he can’t work that week. It’s the same in care, management expect total availability and have no regard for work life balance, which is shocking considering the poor pay

These kind of contracts infuriate me, DS was on a similar one at McDonald's.
Truth is they expect you to be available 24/7, 365 days of the year with about 5mins notice.
It was impossible to book a dentist appointment, haircut, family birthday, it was a nightmare.
And if they scheduled him to work, often a lot more than 15 hours, it was his responsibility to find cover if he needed time off, and no one wanted extra shifts. He left in the end.
In the ideal world they'd give you regular working days/hours so you can plan and know where you are. My daughter worked at matalan and knew she'd be workingTuesday evening and all day Sunday every week - bliss, But sadly this arrangement is unusual nowadays for retail and hospitality roles.
My advice would be to get experience then look for a job with a regular working pattern.
Basically he can either do the shift, try and get cover, phone in sick(won't like that and a bit obvious!) or resign

Would you consider this to be helpful or kind?

@Velmy

Many people on zero hour contracts very much appreciate the fact they can swap shifts to fit round their lives. That's one of the advantages of the system. Not just students (although a lot are students), but people with caring responsibilities (elderly parents, spouses, as well as dc), people who are just topping up pensions, or income whilst they are a SAHP, people who go away with sports or hobbies, people who struggle to work full time, people who have illnesses that leave them unable to work when they have flare ups but capable when they don't, and just people who get invited out and want to go!

Wow, this is wild. So not only do they push the responsibility from management to staff to resolve staffing issues, they have people paying each other for the privilege!

What a racket! 😆

I told a company I couldn't work Saturdays once when I took an office job.

They put me on a Saturday-I really couldn't work it-but £10 is a bargain!I paid a woman £50 to do it and that was probably around 2012!

My DD has a zero hours contract and it states in her contract that she will have the rota the week before. It also states that as long as she tells her manager her availability before the rota is out, she has the right to turn down shifts if she’s been rota’d on her unavailable dates. I’m sure it even says she doesn’t have to accept any work offered.

Obviously zeros hours and 15 hours is different, but surely people can’t be expected to keep all day every day free for the foreseeable future because they might be rota’d to work?

The manager may not have written down who does what shift, however the number of people not granted leave will be known. So no surprise if say four staff are needed on Saturday and there are only four to choose from.

The son can't ask anyone to swap shifts as he doesn't know which shifts he has been assigned.

Expecting him to be available 100% of the time in order to work 15 hours a week is unreasonable.

I hope he can find someone to swap once the rota has been done or that the Manager asks for other staff willing to pick up additional hours to cover the shifts they would have rota'd your son on for.

Presumably the manager said the other people could have time off not knowing OP’s son also wanted it off. What’s he supposed to do, cancel someone else’s leave to solve the problem caused by OP’s son? Absolutely not, it’s not the manager’s problem.

They do it all the time. However if this company are employing students they must be working around lectures etc so I imagine if negotiated at interview some days or half days may be blacked out as unavailable.

Outrageous that a business will pay for 15 hours, but insist on 70 hours of availability.

And why, if he's a graduate is he only working 15 hours a week? Surely Amazon, Lidl etc are looking for full time staff.

This is the problem today. He's not standing on his own 2 feet at 21/2. He's relying on the helicopter parents to deal with his life for him. Surely if he's got a degree he should have mentioned the fact he can't work then.

I despair

No, Easter is the weekend before.

The chances are that if more than one person has already requested the weekend off work, all other staff will have to work that weekend and there will be no one for him to swap with.

That's Easter isn't it? One of the busiest weekends of the year. They will need all hands on deck